Welcome Anonymous !

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“The word Upanishad is understood to mean well ascertained knowledge of the self that leads one to recognize Brahman, thereby destroying the suffering of worldly life, Samsara. Because this knowledge destroys all suffering, everyone desires it, even without knowing so. Everyone wants to be the whole. We happen to be the whole, which is why nothing less will suffice. Our attempts to prove ourselves to be special are rooted in this desire to be the whole that we truly are.” Day after Day with Swami Dayananda

Very important points Dayananda emphasizes here. 1) consciously or not, all human endeavor is for the sake a reestablishing one’s wholeness, fullness and limitlessness. 2) The Upanishads present us with the knowledge that leads us to the recognition of our original ever present fullness as pure consciousness. 3) Human psychological suffering is the byproduct of self-ignorance, and therefore can only be canceled by self-knowledge. 4) Every human being wants self-knowledge but they do not know it yet. 5) Only a rare individual, due to meritorious karma will understand the root-cause of his suffering, and guided by the scriptures will inquire to firmly hold self-knowledge. 6) all of our attempts to be loved, validated, recognized and special is an unconscious distortion of our desire to be free from the sense of limitation which is the cause of psychological suffering.

Question: Could you perhaps explain a little more about the sense of limitation versus limitlessness. I'm not clear on how that comes into suffering, nor how essential it is to be free of limitation as the cause of psychological suffering. I no longer seem to suffer internally but I do know my knowledge is not complete. I feel I'm missing this key aspect around limitation versus limitlessness, but I don't know where to start in grasping what it refers to. Thank you.

Answer: Hi Jess, good to hear from you. A gold ring is limited by its form as a ring – its existence is not only dependable on the gold and limited by name and form, but also limited by time because one day that ring will be recycled to become a different name and form. The gold in this analogy is free of all attributes of forms – its undependable nature does not modify with time. Likewise, our essential nature as pure awareness is not limited by time, space, and the attributes of mithya which affects, modifies and decays all of its apparent objects.

On the other hand, Jiva, the experiencing entity, is an animate “self-conscious” object, and therefore, it modifies with the contact with other objects. It is limited by time, space, what it knows etc. Jiva lives and experiences life according to its karma – cause and effect is the name of the game for the Jiva, but regardless of how much punya karma Jiva may have stocked in its account to produce favorable experiences, a day will come and the same Jiva will be faced with unfavorable experiences such as, old aging, disease, pain, suffering, and death.

Among all limitations experienced by Jivas, the one of “time” is the most afflicting because it appears to the Jiva as the end of its own existence. But the intriguing thing is that this most limiting attribute of mithya called “time” is Jiva’s own subjective creation/projection, brought about by Jiva’s ignorance of the non-dual nature of reality, as well of his own identity/nature. Jiva is always going to experience the sense of limitation because self-ignorance (which is designed by Maya) is built-in with Jivahood. You see the logic? Maya – Apparent duality – Jivahood – Self-ignorance – Identification with the body-mind – Sense of limitation – Suffering.

The Jivamukta is the Jiva that has firmly realized his primary identity as the limitless Consciousness, the essential nature of all manifest and unmanifest universes. This realization is only possible by a clear and doubt-free self-knowledge - and although Jiva’s firm knowledge of his/her essential identity as Awareness does not cancel his/her secondary identity as the limited Jiva, it will greatly affect Jiva's experience of life. And how so? Limitation, adversity, old aging, disease, pain will all present themselves to the Jivamukta, but due to his/her hard and fast self-knowledge they will not produce psychological suffering. He/She will know it all to be a trick a Maya; Mithya. Jivamukta remains unaffected by apparent limitation.

You Jess, are the limitless Awareness, the causeless cause of all universes. The all-pervasive pure intelligence/knowledge that creates, maintains and recycles everything in Mithya. But you only "consciously" know that with the aid of your secondary apparent identity as the Jivamukta, the Jiva with a clear intellect and a pure heart with the ability to contemplate and know the truth.